Billie Eilish might have fans all over the world who chant her name, but if she could have changed it when she was younger, she would have.
“I absolutely hated my name when I was a kid,” she said in an interview with British Vogue published Monday.
The 23-year-old answered an array of questions about her life and career from fellow stars such as Nicki Minaj, Jane Fonda, Chappell Roan, Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX.
Responding to a question from actor Idris Elba, Eilish said: “‘I thought Billie was a boy’s name.’ That’s all I ever heard every day of my life. I remember just being so mad, and all I wanted was to have a girly name, like Violet or like Lavender, some sort of, you know, pretty flowery name.”
Thankfully, the singer, who now has her name tied to two Oscars, two Golden Globes and nine Grammy Awards, has completely reversed her perspective.
“And it’s so funny because now there’s no other name in the universe that could be my name besides Billie,” she added. “I love my name so so so much. It really is the only possible choice for who I am. I just feel like it’s exactly perfect for me and who I am.”
She said she was named after her grandfather, William, and the first female Billie she knew of was “Doctor Who” star Billie Piper.
Over the years, Eilish’s fashion choices have swayed from baggy outfits to tighter-fitting pieces.
In Minaj’s question, she said to Eilish, “you seem to be a bit uncomfortable with how beautiful you are at times,” before asking the “Ocean Eyes” singer if she ever “wished people couldn’t see you and that they could only hear the music.”
“Nicki, this question made me tear up a little,” Eilish responded, before agreeing that she “never really felt very beautiful or seen myself in that way, so I definitely never struggled with the idea that it would overshadow anything, since I didn’t even really see it myself. I’ve had to really convince myself that I am beautiful. Being a woman is hard.”
Eilish answered a range of questions, including one posed by Stella McCartney, who asked the singer about her love of animals and being a vegan.
Eilish said it took her years after her family went vegan to do the same, “mainly because I hated my body and I thought I would lose weight.”
“But then I learnt all about the dairy industry and the completely horrific and disturbing animal agriculture that we all just pretend is normal and OK,” she continued.
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